A Dinky Hearth's Warming Eve (Eve)

by Autumnschild

Chapter 1

With the sun still high and the last of the afternoon bells ringing over Ponyville’s elementary school, cheering foals of all shapes and sizes began to pour out into the snow-covered world. And there was plenty to cheer about. Because today was the day before Hearth’s Warming Eve.

Some foals galloped out of the small school house’s front door. Others rushed to the playground with friends through the side door. A tiny constellation of pegasi flapped their way out of open windows, occasionally bumping into one another on unsure wings.

But back inside the classroom, a small smattering of ponies remained, either not as eager as their already departed counterparts, or they were otherwise distracted. One such pony was Dinky Doo, the smallest unicorn in Ms. Cheerilee’s class. Small though she was, she wore a face of immense concentration, total and absolute, as she stared at her school bag, hanging by its lonesome on its hook on the wall.

A thin, pale yellow aura, easily dismissible as a trick of the eye, encased her bag, and slowly, methodically it eased itself into the air. Dinky stared at it, unblinking, willing it with all her might to race to her and strap itself to her back, as she’d seen other unicorns in her class do. While talking with their friends. And walking somewhere. And not concentrating as hard as she was.

The aura around the bag wavered, and she banished the distracting thoughts from her mind, focusing only on the bag. It was the whole world to her right now, and it had only moved about a foot.

And then the upturned tip of Fry’s big dumb stupid red mane brushed against the bottom of her bag as he ran under it, and her world fell to the floor with a suspicious crunch.

“Fry!” she shouted with a pounding of little hooves on her desk.

“Sorry Dinky, Happy Hearth’s Warming!” he shouted half-heartedly over his shoulder as he waddled his hay-burger cutie mark out the door.

The little filly hopped out of her seat and trotted over to her bag and scooped it up with a huff. Turning it over in her hooves, she opened the top flap and inspected the contents within. With a frown she pulled out a crinkled up paperbag, and unfurled its opening to look inside.

Ponyfeathers, she thought as she hoofed through the broken innards.

“Everything okay there, Dink-Donk?” asked an annoying voice to her right.

“I’m fine Diamond Tiara,” she said, jamming one bag back into the other. “But the pretzels that I had for snack are all broken. Also,” she said, still rummaging through her school bag, “I left my house key at home.”

“Oh boo-hoo, your pretzels broke. That’s no reason to sit on the floor and block my way out, is it?” demanded Diamond Tiara with a flick of her mane and look on her face that said ‘No it’s really not.’

Dinky slung her old schoolbag over her shoulder and strapped it across her belly, all the while giving Diamond Tiara a dirty look. “Why you gotta be so mean?”

“I’m not mean,” said the taller, prettier earth pony as she shoved her way past Dinky, “I’m tough. There’s a difference. When you’re done getting yourself together Dink-Donk, come outside. I’ve got a holiday surprise for everypony.”

“A surprise?” asked Dinky

Diamond Tiara got to the door and spun in place with a flourish. In her sickly sweet sing-song voice she called out to the other end of the classroom with a wave. “Happy Hearth’s Warming Miss Cheerilee!”

Dinky turned in place in time to see Miss Cheerilee offer Diamond Tiara a small but genuine smile and a wave. Then she turned her attention back to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who were peppering their poor teacher with questions about gross icky spiders. Apple Bloom had a look on her face that Dinky knew meant trouble. So she decided to stay out of whatever it was the three of them were planning.

Not that they’d ask her to join in anyway.

---

Trotting out the door, Dinky didn’t have to look hard to see whatever it was that Diamond Tiara had planned. Not with her standing in the center of a small crowd of schoolfoals.

“Oh wow! They’re so cute!” came a cry from the crowd.

“Therth thomething thepcial about thith one!” squealed the unmissable lisp of Peppermint Twist as she rose up above the others crowded around her, and lifted something high into the air with her forehooves. Something fuzzy. And adorable.

And mewing.

Dinky didn’t remember running into the crowd, or ducking under, between, and around her peers. But somehow, a heartbeat later, there she was at the center of it all, leaning into a little red wagon and staring down at a baker’s dozen of snuggly-wuggly kittens, all in a pile on top of the quilt that lined the wagon’s bed.
“Oh my gosh, Diamond! Where did you get the kittens?!” asked Dinky, trying to speak over the excited noises of the other foals around her.

“Gather round, children,” crowed Diamond Tiara as she stood at the head of her wagon, “and I’ll sing you a tale of furballs for sale.”

And as she spoke those words, a hum began to start in and among the crowd. A hop here and smile there, a stomping of hooves, and a swishing of tails. A tune, a merry little thing with bells and chimes, filled the festive air around Ponyville Elementary School.

Diamond Tiara sang about a night back in early fall, where a roving Catsanova, caught the eye of Diva, the Rich family cat. She sang about how her father tried to chase the tom cat away, but to no avail.

She continued and sparked a fair bit of blushing and giggling from the young ponies gathered ‘round as she sang about their noisy romance atop the gated arch that was the entryway to the Rich family plantation. Finally, when she got to the part where her red-faced father was spraying the two cats ineffectually with a garden hose while shouting expletives, the song crumbled around them into fits and pockets of childish laughter.

Diamond Tiara wiped her face and caught her breath before finishing her tale. “Anyway, Diva had her kittens about a month ago. And daddy said if I sell them all before we pick up Diva from Dr. Spades tonight, I get to keep the money!” she said with sparkling eyes. “So who wants to buy a kitten?!”

A chorus of “Me’s” and “I do’s” went up around Dinky Doo, who couldn’t take her eyes off the kittens peeping and mewing as kittens do at all the excitement around them. Several of them were scooped up, others stood up on shaky paws and explored the corners of their quilted wagony home.

Dinky reached a hoof in, eager to pet one of the purring preciouses, when something large landed with a thud on the other side of the wagon, sending up a wave of snow out over the kittens and surrounding foals.

“Nein!” came a deep adamant cry from the big something as black taloned paws began pulling kittens out of hooves. “No buying, no touching.” it said resolutely.

Scooting back from the wagon full of protesting, snow-covered, kittens along with her peers, Dinky got a good look at the biggest griffon she’d ever seen. Well, it was probably the third or fourth griffon she’d ever seen, but still. This one was the biggest. She had bright white feathers on her head and chest and blue-gray fur and feathers, otherwise. Her beak and claws were black as coal, and her red eyes matched the uncharacteristically jaunty red scarf around her thick neck.

“Jeez, Roch, easy with the merchandise!” protested Diamond Tiara as she dusted the kitten wagon free of snow. “Everypony, this is my new Governess, Roch. She comes from the Griffon Kingdoms.”

Roch eyed the timid gathering before her, and gave them the slightest possible nod. She cleared her throat, and opened her beak to speak, when a cry went out.

“Whoa, a Griffon!” excitedly exclaimed a scratchy voice from far behind Dinky and the cowed crowd she stood in.

Seconds later a burnt-orange filly, only slightly smaller than Dinky was, buzzed her wings frantically as she leapfrogged over the gathering and into the arms of a very confused griffon. Scootaloo stood up, her hind legs balancing precariously in the griffon’s open palms, and her forelegs smooshed up on the griffon’s cheeks, turning the creature’s head every-which way, eagerly inspecting every inch.

“Griffons are so cool,” Scootaloo said, clambering over the top of Roch’s head. “How do you get your feathers on top to stick up like this? They look like a mane. Oh, wow look at your wings! They’re so big, can I touch them?”

The griffon grumbled and muttered as she crained her arms and neck, desperately trying to pull the parasitic pegasus off of her. “Nein! Who said you may touch Roch? Aussteigen ze!”

Finally pulling Scootaloo from her back, at the loss of a hoof full of feathers, the griffon named Roch tossed the pegasus away with the flick of her wrist, the way a pony might try to shoo a fly. Dinky watched as Scootaloo flew through the air, bobbing along her thrown trajectory with the meager buzzing of her wings. She ‘landed’ head-first into a small snow bank beside her two friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.

“Well, if it isn’t the Blank-Flank Crus-failers,” mocked Diamond Tiara, commanding the attention of the gathered foals once more. “Here to buy a kitten?”

“Nah,” said Apple Bloom, pulling her friend out of the snowbank by her tail. “We got a whole mess of ‘em at Sweet Apple Acres. Mousers fer the barn, keep the rodents outta our stores, that sorta thing.”

“None for me thanks,” said Sweetie Belle, as she walked around the crowd to check out the kittens. “They’re cute as the dickens, but dad’s allergic and Rarity already has Opal.”

Scootaloo, now standing once again, wobbled to and fro as little stars danced before her eyes. “I like turtles,” she said, insightfully.

“Riiight,” dismissed Diamond Tiara with a roll of her eyes.

Dinky watched Sweetie Belle pick up kitten after kitten with her magic. The littlest unicorn in the crowd felt an uncomfortable jealously swell up inside her chest at the easy and casual nature with which the taller, prettier unicorn used her magic. She’s probably getting private lessons from Princess Twilight, she thought with a frown. I bet if I had private lessons, I’d be…

Sweetie Belle gasped, and lifted a single struggling kitten into the air with her magic, and Dinky shook her head clear her envious thoughts. She could see right away there was something special about this kitten.

“Merbrll,” protested this, the smallest kitten of the litter, unhappy to be away from the warmth of the pile of its siblings and floating in the cold air.

“What’s wrong with her paws?” asked a filly behind Dinky.

Indeed, something was wrong with the kitten’s paws. Her fore-paws were way too short. And they bent at wrong angles, like she was expecting a hug.

“Are they broken?” asked Dinky, her heart pouring out for the little thing. This was the one. This was the kitten that she wanted most.

Clinically, Sweetie Belle rotated the kitten in her magical grasp. “No, this kitten has ‘Radial Agenesis.’”

Everypony within earshot (and the griffon) stood stone still, staring at Sweetie Belle, until she lowered the kitten and looked up at a sea of questioning faces. “What? We had a field trip to the vet last week, remember? Dr. Spades and Dr. Goodall gave us a joint lecture on congential diseases. No?”

Silent blinking was her only answer.

“Don’t you have anyone else to annoy with that big stupid brain of yours?” demanded Diamond Tiara.

The eastern clock tower, which sat in the otherwise empty field between the school and the town proper began ringing out its quarter-till warning, and Apple Bloom let out a whistle of her own. “Come on, Sweetie Belle,” she said as she and Scootaloo walked by the gathering, giving the griffon a wide berth, “We gotta get to the train station if we’re gonna get it to the Crystal Empire ‘fore sun down.”

“Yeah!” exclaimed Scootaloo, still walking funny. “We’re gonna catch a turtle.”

“Tundranchula,” corrected Sweetie Belle, as she trotted over to Scootaloo’s other side to help prop her up. “It’s a big spider that lives in the Frozen North.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. Why are we doing this thing we’re doing again?” Dinky heard the pegasus ask the other two Cutie Mark Crusaders as the trio walked out of earshot.

“How much are the kittenth?” asked Peppermint Twist, who dared to approach the wagon and its griffon guardian.

Diamond Tiara spun in place from where she was watching the trio of blank flanks trot off with a furrowed brow, “Come again?” she asked.

“How much do you want for them?” Peppermint asked carefully as her tail twitching. Dinky knew that the tail twitch was something the poor pony did subconsciously when she was feeling self-conscious about her lisp. That’s why some of the meaner kids called her ‘Twitchy Twitht.’

“The kittens are thirty-five bits each.”

Dinky’s heart sank like a rock in her gut. Thirty-five bits was an impossible amount of money. The muttering of the crowd matched her own grim thoughts on the subject.

“Thirty-five bits?” asked somepony, probably Liza Doolots by the nasally intonations.

“That’s right,” said Diamond Tiara with a nod.

“For a kitten?” asked Fry, “does it do anything cool?”

“They do… Kitten things. Those are cool.” she insisted.

“Do the kittenth come with food or anything?” asked Twist.

“No, the thirty-five bits just gets you a kitten.”

“We’ve got thirty-five bits!” said Snips and Snails in chorus, standing over a pile of bits, old gum, and some marbles. “Can we split one?” asked Snails, blinking his eyes one at a time.

Diamond Tiara winced at the question, “You mean, can you share one?”

“Oh! Sharing sounds way better. Yeah, can we do that?” asked Snips, excitedly.

“Sure,” Diamond Tiara said flatly, pulling a random kitten out of the wagon and hoofing it over in exchange for the shared treasures of the dundering duo. “Knock yourselves out.”

The two boys ran off down the road towards town, laughing all the way. Their new kitten, a tan and white little thing with a rather permanent looking frown, bounced in the air between them, suspended in a motley aura that shared the two colors of their unicorn magic.

“Anypony else want a kitten?” asked Diamond Tiara as she began strapping herself into her wagon.

“Would you take leth than thirty-five bith for a kitten?”

“Prices are non-negotiable,” the magenta little mare said matter-of-factly.

“What about the little broken one?” asked Dinky, as loudly as she dared.

Diamond Tiara tossed a look over her shoulder at Dinky, then at the runt, and shrugged. “The little one’s twenty-five.”

“Last call before I bring these guys into town. Any takers? No? Okay then, I’m bringing the kittens to market. Be sure to tell all your friends about Diamond Tiara’s Delightful Kitten Sale! And do hurry,” she said with an annoying upturn of her voice, “Because supplies are limited. Come on, Roch!”

As Diamond Tiara began her walk into town, Roch the griffon shot up into the sky and flapped in lazy circles around her charge pulling her wagon. Dinky thought that Roch looked like a buzzard flying high in the desert. Except for the whole ‘buzzards aren’t griffons’ thing. And buzzards didn't wear jaunty red scarves. And the-

“I’m gonna athk my older thither!”

“Huh?” asked Dinky, turning to face Peppermint Twist.

Peppermint Twist’s tail twitched, and she frowned. “I’m going to talk to my… Older relative about buying a kitten.”

“Oh, blimey, ‘at’s a great idea, Twist!” said Pipsweak, who Dinky thought was the only pony in class shorter and more easily overlooked than she was. “I’ll bet me mum’ll get me a kitten!”

A round of reassuring ‘mhmms,' ‘yeahs,’ and other such positive soundbites filled the air, and the tiny stampede of foals ran off towards their various homes and relatives, back in town to the west. And in the midst of them, galloping for all she was worth, was Dinky Doo. Twenty-five bits, she thought to herself, wearing the widest grin.

Momma might say yes to twenty-five bits.

Comments

[deadpansnarker]

It's good! It's cute in a good way, you've kept everypony in character....and the standard of grammar is the best I've seen for a while. Let's hope Opal doesn't get jealous of all the new kitties in town. A well earned thumbs up for you, my friend...

[DonutBeagle]

Good to know that Twilight plays favorites, rather than spending time helping lesser characters hone their own magical powers . . .

[djthomp]

What a surprisingly likable Diamond Tiara in this.

Scootaloo, now standing once again, wobbled to and fro as little stars danced before her eyes. “I like turtles,” she said, insightfully.

Figures.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Scootaloo, still walking funny. “We’re gonna catch a turtle.”
“Tundranchula,” corrected Sweetie Belle, as she trotted over to Scootaloo’s other side to help prop her up. “It’s a big spider that lives in the Frozen North.”

Double at Snips and Snails.

[pterrorgrine]

For the record, I didn't actually edit the only chapter that's up as of this writing. I did a little on the second one, though.